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THE CAPTURE 



LOCK MOUSE RT TOMS RiYER 



NEW JERSEY, 



MSRCH 24. 1782 



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THE CAPTURE 



LOCK MOUSE ST lOMS KIYER 



NEW JERSEY, 



MURCH 24, 1782. 



READ AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE AT TOMS RI¥ER, MHY 30, 1883, 

WILLIAM sr'sTRYKER. 

ADJUTANT GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY. 



TBENTON, N. J. 
NAAB, DAY A NAAR, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 



1883. 



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The Block House m Toms Riyer. 



It is always a pleasant task to examine the records of the 
past and to attempt to rescue from the deluge of time some 
of the floating relics of the history, the character, the home- 
life of our forefathers — the manly yeomanry who settled 
Old Monmouth — and to preserve a narrative of the patri- 
otic deeds of the grandsons of these pioneers as they helped 
to free this soil from the rule of the British crown. The 
same physical energy, stout-hearted nerve and bravery 
which characterized the Hartshornes, Holmes, Brownes, 
Grovers, Halls and Comptons, was again a century there- 
after re-developed in the Formans, Hendricksons, Scudders, 
Smocks and Andersons of the revolutionary period, and in 
the Conovers, Estells, Horners, Attersons and Havens of 
our own time. 

It is my privilege to-day to direct your special attention 
to an event in the history of the struggle for independence 
which occurred a hundred years ago. This assault and de- 
fence, short in its duration, small in the numbers actually 
engaged, removed from the track of armies, away from the 
sources of intelligence, in a quiet and an obscure village, 
was yet the beginning of a bloody tragedy, the prelude to a 
bold enactment by the Continental Congress, the issue by 
Washington of an order which must have been full of 
heart-pain to him, the creation through all the States of a 
wide-spread sympathy, a feeling which wafted itself over a 



4 The Block House at Toms River. 

stormy ocean and found precatory expression in the Court 
of St. James, and in the halls of Louis XVI at Versailles. 

The last parallel had been run, the last ditch had been 
dug, the last midnight assault had been made successfully 
on the ramparts surrounding the little Virginia village 
where Lord Cornwallis was environed by a gallant and a 
valorous foe. The starry emblem of a young republic's 
future glory and the white banner of the fleur-de-lis of 
France had been planted on the shattered batteries, the 
surrender of the British force had been signed in the 
trenches before York, the conquered had been hurried to 
their winter prisons, and the conquerors had returned to 
their huts on the heights of Morris county and the shores 
of the Hudson. Washington and Rochambeau had joined 
with DeGrasse, and, reinforcing the youthful Lafayette, they 
had ended by one great effort the power of Great Britain in 
Virginia, and had retired into quarters to await through a 
long, dull winter the effect of this reverse on the plans for 
the future in the council of King George, and the first 
dawn of that peace which they began now to discern. 

Let us look away from the quiet Quaker City where 
Washington was spending the winter conferring with Con- 
gress and endeavoring to prevent the colonies from relax- 
ing in their preparations for the next campaign ; from the 
metropolis on the great harbor where Sir Henry Clinton, 
confined with his army within narrow military bounds, in 
no cheerful mood was waiting to know the pleasure of the 
British ministry ; from the troops in camp elated with their 
great success on Southern soil ; and from the prisoners of 
war in Pennsylvania and Maryland, striving as best they 
could, to submit to the privations of their lot. 

No section of the country had such zealous loyalists and 



The Block House at Toms River. 5 

none such fervid, stout-hearted patriots as Monmouth 
county. Every portion of this district was filled with the 
strongest partisans of their country's freedom, and here and 
there the devoted friends of the royal cause. Around Mon- 
mouth Court House, under the influence which emanated 
from the pulpit in the Tennent Church, in the town of 
Shrewsbury and in the village of Middletown Point, were 
clustered families of men who devoted themselves unre- 
servedly to the liberty of America. But they were often 
cruelly annoyed by their bitter and vindictive neighbors 
who did all that bad men could do to injure their country- 
men in their property, their happiness and their lives. 
Forced to arm themselves against an unrelenting foe, the 
patriots were accustomed to band themselves together to 
defend each other against the revengeful Tories. The post 
of one of these companies organized for the defence of the 
maritime frontier, was the old town of Dover on Toms 
River, and at this place they had erected a little fort. 

It was a rude structure of undressed logs which was the 
chosen rallying post of this little band of heroes. It had 
been built on a knoll on property now belonging to Cap- 
tain Ralph B. Gowdy and Thomas Singleton, and included 
such portion of ^^obbins street as fronts the tract of land 
owned by these gentlemen. It was at that time a very 
prominent object in this little village. On Jake's Branch, 
a half mile south of this pjace, stood the old saw-mill and 
flour-mill of Paul Schenck and Abraai Schenck, now the 
property owned by John Aumack. On the northeast cor- 
ner of what is now Water and Main streets was the public 
inn kept by Abiel Aikens. There were also a few houses, in 
which lived Captain Ephraim Jenkins, Aaron Buck, Mrs. 
Sarah Studson, (widow of Lieutenant Joshua Studson, who 



6 The Block House at Toms River. 

was killed December, 1780, while on duty on the coast,) 
Daniel Randolph, David Imla}', Jacob Fleming, and Major 
John Cook. The manager of the salt works lived in the town 
near his store-house. This was about all the village where 
this fight took place. To a small wharf on the river bank 
one of Captain Adam Hyler's barges was tied, in which 
some traffic was made along the coast between this point 
and the Raritan River at Brunswick, where he resided. We 
must refer to him again. 

The block-house, so rough in appearance, was built of 
logs seven feet high, set perpendicularly in the ground and 
pointed at the top. It was nearly square, and every few 
feet between the logs was an opening large enough to sight 
and discharge a firelock. On one side of this fence was a 
small building intended as a sort of barracks, and on the 
other side a little room half concealed underground, which 
they called their powder magazine. On each of the four 
corners of this structure, raised high on a strong, well- 
braced bed of logs, a small cannon was erected, mounted on 
a pivot, and this was intended to be the stout protection 
against an assaulting force. No method of ingress or exit 
was ever made in this rude fort, and a scaling ladder was a 
constant necessity. On a cold winter morning this little 
post was destined to be the theatre of a brief but bloody 
struggle, and from this sharp action unseen and far-reach- 
ing sequences were soon to follow. 

The commander of this little fortification since the first 
of the year 1782 was Captain Joshua Huddy, a brave, gal- 
lant and daring soldier, who since the first hour of the war 
had devoted himself to the cause of liberty. On the 10th 
of December, 1781, the citizens of Monmouth county had 
petitioned the Legislature that he might be ordered to the 



The Block House at Toms River. 7 

post at Toms River. He was soon after instructed, proba- 
bly by the Council of Safety, to march his company to that 
place. He was the oldest of seven brothers of the New 
Jersey family of Huddy. He organized and commanded 
a company of artillery in the twelve months' levy of the 
State Regiment of Major Samuel Hayes during most of the 
years of the conflict for independence. Man}^ and strangely 
romantic are the stories told in the journals of that day, 
and oftener recalled by tradition in this neighborhood, of 
the adventurous feats and bold enterprises performed by 
this fearless man. Let it suffice now to recall the fierce 
courage of the soldier who, instead of surrendering to the 
foe surrounding his homestead at Colt's Neck, about five 
miles from Freehold, chose rather, while feeble women 
loaded the muskets he had in his house, to fire them with 
deadly effect from diff'erent positions within the building, 
so as to appear with his single self to be a little band per- 
forming valiant service. And then, after a two hours' 
fight and his house fired, being overpowered and carried 
off, he unhesitatingly leaped into the waters of the bay, an- 
nouncing his personality to his vexed captors: "I am 
Huddy! I- am Huddy!" reached his well-known shore, and 
plunged into a thicket where no stranger could easily fol- 
low him. No expedition was too hazardous for Huddy not 
to volunteer, no labor too great for Huddy not to undertake 
if the holy cause he loved could thereby be benefited. This 
was the commandant of the block-house at Toms River in 
1782. This was the man the stor}^ of whose tragic fate was 
discussed in the councils of three nations. In the closing 
days of the month of March rumors of the possibility of an 
attempt to capture this post reached brave Huddy and his 
company of two non-commissioned officers and twenty-three 



8 The Block House at Toms River. 

men, gathered within the little fort, and they made imme- 
diate preparations for a stubborn defence. 

On that Sunday morning in March, Sergeant Landon at 
daybreak called the roll of the New Jersey battery, and 
every man responded "Here." I will call the roll as he did 
on that eventful morning, from the muster on file in the 
military records of the State : 

Captain Joshua Huddy. 
Sergeants David Landon and Luke Storey. 
Matrosses : 
Daniel Applegate, John Morris, 

William Case, John Niverson, 

David Dodge, George Parker, 

James Edsall, John Parker, 

John Eldridge, Joseph Parker, 

John Farr, John Pellmore, 

James Kennedy, Moses Robbins, 

James Kinsley, Thomas Rostoinder, 

Cornelius McDonald, Jacob Stillwagon, 

James Mitchell, Seth Storey, 

John Mitchell, John Wainwright, 

John Wilbur. 

The reason for the erection of this fort on Toms River, 
with its barracks and its magazine, will more fully appear 
when we study carefully the commodities which the people 
of the States in the revolutionary period so greatly needed, 
and with which the commissary department of the army 
was so poorly supplied. The article of salt for curing meats 
was so important a necessit}'^, that, in the early days of the 
war, to encourage the manufacturing of a good supply of 



The Block House at Toms River. 9 

salt occupied the attention of State Legislatures, was dis- 
cussed in the Board of War, was the subject of many re- 
solves by the Councils of Safoty. If we examine the min- 
utes of these bodies, we will see the interest which they took 
in this matter. 

On June 24, 1776, the Council of Safet}'' of Pennsylvania 
made a contract with Thomas Savadge to erect works at 
Toms River, New Jersey, and appropriated £400 for that 
purpose. This establishment was called the " Pennsylvania 
Salt Works," and Mr. Savadge w^as made the manager. He 
located them on Coates' Point, at the junction of Barnegat 
Bay and Toms River, a half mile from the bay and some 
six hundred yards from the river. It was on land now 
owned by Gaven Brackenridge, formerly known as the 
Salter property. Mr. Coates, a Philadelphia merchant, was 
at one time interested in this establishment, and the point 
was named after him. The machinery at these works was 
of the rudest kind, as were also those erected some distance 
north of Coates' Point and another one on the south side 
of the mouth of Toms River, at Goodluck Point. The salt 
made at tliese places was taken by boats to the village, and 
stored until it could be transported in wagons across the 
State. A barrack was ordered to be erected by the authori- 
ties of Pennsylvania, and a magazine for the storage of 
ammunition, and the men employed in the works were 
directed to be supplied with arms. The Legislature of New 
Jersey was asked to relieve these men from active militia 
duty, which request was granted after some delay. On 
February 5, 1777, the Council of Safety of Pennsylvania 
ordered a company of infantry with two cannon to be sent 
to Toms River to protect their Slate property. In March 
following, in consequence of a letter of advice from Mr. 



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10 The Block House at Toms River. 

Savadge, the Navy Board of Pennsylvania sent the armed 
boat Delaware, Captain Richard Eyre, to cruise off the 
mouth of Toms River. Later, in July, 1777, Captain John 
Nice, of the Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot, was 
ordered across this State, with his company, to protect the 
works. Just before Christmas of that year. Colonel John 
Morris, of the New Jersey Volunteers, a Tory regiment, 
came with a party, by order of General Howe, and made 
some demonstration as if to attack the fort and destroy the 
works. 

In the meantime, the "Union Salt Works" had been 
erected at Squan, and another on Shark River, and Mr. 
Newlin had a salt factory on Barnegat Bay. The wary 
General Forman and his Monmouth Militia had now to 
keep a watchful eye on these important interests. In April, 
1778, the works of Mr. Savadge were destroyed by a British 
party, under Captain Robertson, but were soon afterward 
rebuilt. He died in October, 1779, and in December of 
that year the works were sold to John Thompson, of Bur- 
lington county. New Jersey, for £15,000, Continental money. 
So the establishment came under Jersey control, and had 
to be protected thereafter by her own troops. And so it 
continued until the event which we now narrate. 

Presiding over the Board of Associated Loyalists in the 
city of New York was the last Governor of New Jersey by 
royal appointment. William Franklin, since his sojourn 
within the British lines, had been most zealous in devising 
schemes to injure the patriot cause among the Jerseymen 
who now disowned his kingly-bestowed commission. About 
the middle of March, 1782, the Directors of this Board 
planned an expedition to capture the little blockhouse at 
Toms River and destroy the village. Orders were given to 



The Block House at Toms River. 11 

Captain Evan Thomas and Lieutenant Owen Roberts, of 
the Bucks county (Pennsylvania) Volunteers, with about 
forty refugees who were loyal to the British, to embark on 
some whale-boats commanded by Lieutenant Blanchard 
and a strong armed crew of eighty seamen. On Wednes- 
day morning, March 20, 1782, this party left the wharves 
of New York and sailed down the harbor. A full-armed 
brigantine, the Arrogant, Captain Stewart Ross command- 
ing, escorted them down the bay. But the winds were con- 
trary, and after beating about here and there it was not 
until March 23d that they fairly rounded Sandy Hook and 
were able to sail down the coast. At midnight the party 
passed through Cranberry Inlet (now closed), landed the 
armed loyalists, soldiers and seamen at Coates' Point, on 
the north side of the mouth of Toms River, and in the 
still, cool night marched up to the little village. A detach- 
ment of armed refugees under Richard Davenport, who 
lived in this section, and after whom Davenport's Branch 
was named, joined them on their route to the town. 

It was just at early dawn, Sunday, March 24th, that the 
Tory party, guided by a refugee named William Dillon, 
came within sight of this little hamlet. Captain Huddy 
had been apprised of their coming the previous evening by 
Garret Irons, and during the night had sent out a scouting 
party of volunteers from the village by a road leading 
along the river towards the Point. In this way they missed 
the Tory force, which took a more northerly route, passing 
through the woods and lowland, and entering the village 
on the north side. They were promptly challenged by a 
vigilant picket, who delivered his fire on the advance line. 
The swivel guns in the little fort were instantly manned, 
brave Huddy and his dauntless force were at their post of 



12 The Block House at Toms River. 

duty, and a musket was run out from every loophole in the 
block-house. A hasty call to surrender was made by the 
Tory refugees, a bitter answer of defiance was the quick 
reply, and a fierce charge was instantly made by Captain 
Thomas and his loyalists and Lieutenant Blanchard and 
his daring privateers. This desperate rush found the brave 
partisan soldiers all prepared, and in the fusilade which 
followed immediately Lieutenant Inslee of the Volunteers 
received his death wound. On the left another brave offi- 
cer, Lieutenant Iredel, of Blanchard's party, shed his life 
blood on the ground. The patriot Huddy and his company 
used their bayonets well and the long pikes with which 
they had been provided most effectually, and Lieutenant 
Roberts of the Volunteers and five of his men fell from the 
parapet seriously wounded. A negro refugee was also 
wounded. Most stubbornly did they resist a force four 
times greater than their own, and most determinedly did 
they struggle to hold every point of their little fort. James 
Kinsley at the guns received a terrible wound in his head 
which soon caused his death. Moses Robbins was severely 
injured in the face by a musket ball. John Farr was in- 
stantly killed at the very first volley in the fight. James 
Kennedy also fell desperately wounded, and died before 
sunset. John Wainwright fought on until pierced with six 
bullets. David Dodge, Cornelius McDonald and Thomas 
Rostoinder were also killed fighting bravely beside their 
guns. So the patriot ranks began to thin out rapidly as 
the sailors appeared over the top of the palisades and leaped 
down in overwhelming numbers on the heroic band. Their 
supply of powder was also about exhausted. Captain Huddy 
had done, so Squire Randolph afterwards wrote, " all that a 
brave man could do to defend himself against so superior 



The Block House at Toms River. 13 

a number." In the confusion which then ensued five men, 
it is reported, made good their escape, and Captain Huddy 
and sixteen men, four of them wounded, were taken prison- 
ers and tlie block-house opened to the foe. It was said that 
some of these prisoners were butchered after capture, but 
the olficial records do not verify this statement. After the 
surrender. Major John Cook, of the Second Regiment, Mon- 
mouth Militia, who lived in the village, was brutally bay- 
onetted, and died soon afterward. The firebrand then 
made a charred and blackened heap of this garrison post, 
and, in their malevolence, they added to the general con- 
flagration the two mills, the salt works and storehouse, 
which represented the industry of the village, and all the 
dwelling-houses in the town but two — those of Aaron Buck 
and Mrs. Lieutenant Joshua Studson. The guns on which 
Captain Huddy had relied for his sure defence, were securely 
spiked and cast into the river. The large boats tied to the 
wharf, capable of holding about forty men, were rowed down 
the river to the bay, and carried off as prizes of conquest. 
So the affair ended in an almost total destruction of the 
town. Captain Huddy, the brave and gallant soldier, with 
his comrades, the magistrate of the town (Daniel Randolph, 
who had volunteered as a guard, and who was a man of 
prominence and influence among the Whigs), and old 
Jacob Fleming, were carried off" that Sunday afternoon and 
placed on the Arrogant, for passage to New York. The 
afterpart of tlie day was raw and cheerless, and, while the 
expedition had designed to devastate the country around 
Shark River, and destroy the salt works at Squan, yet the 
condition of Lieutenant Roberts and his wounded men, 
thus far without medical attendanc, forbade the further 
progress of the expedition. On Monday forenoon the fleet 



14 The Block House at Toms River. 

appeared at the dock in New York, and Captain Huddy 
and his followers were instantly confined in the Old Sugar 
House Prison. 

Captain Joshua Hudd}' was now fairly a prisoner of war 
and entitled to all .the rights granted to such men, in such 
situations, under all that is honorable in the code of war. 
But these rights were not respected by Franklin and his 
cruel Board of Loyalists. Far more bitter, more unrelent- 
ing in their severity than the British themselves, were those 
men who had fled from their homes to place themselves 
under the protecting care of British bayonets. 

Franklin's Board ordered Captain Huddy from the Sugar 
House Prison to the Provost Jail, April 1st, and from thence, 
on the afternoon of April 8th, he was placed in irons on 
board a sloop, and sent down the next morning, with his 
two friends, Daniel Rand3lph and Jacob Fleming, to the 
armed ship Brittania, Captain Richard Morris command- 
ing, which was stationed as the guard ship off Sandy Hook. 
Captain Richard Lij^pincott, of Shrewsbury township, Mon- 
mouth county, but now in the military service of the crown, 
was ordered down to the guard ship, with secret instructions 
given by the Board, and Huddy was placed in liis custod}'. 
At ten o'clock on the morning of April 12th, 1782, Captain 
Huddy was taken from the ship by Captain Lippincott and 
sixteen loyalists, with six sailors from tlie vessel, and placed 
on the shore at Gravelly Point on tlie Navisink, about a 
mile beyond the old Highland Light House. Here a hasty 
built gallows of three rails, was erected on the water's edg^ 
and a barrel and a rope constituted the entire implements 
of execution. With a strange impulse, it is said, these 
bloody men allowed iiim, with a rope around his neck, to 
dictate his will, and sign it on the barrel head, leaving his 



The Block House at Toms River. 15 

good frieiul, Colonel Samuel Foniian, his executor. This 
will is written on a half sheet of foolscap and bears this 
endorsement: "The will of Captain Joshua Huddy, made 
and executed the same day the Refugees murdered him, 
April 12th, 1782." 

The original is preserved in the Library of the New Jer- 
sey Historical Society at Newark. It is in these woros: 
" In the Name of God, Amen. 

"I, Joshua Huddy, of Middletown, in the County of 
Monmouth, being of sound Mind and Memory, but expect- 
ing shortly to depart this life, do declare this my last will 
& Testament. First, I commit my Soul into the hands of 
Almighty God, hoping he may receive it in mercy, & next 
I commit my Body to tiie Earth, I do also appoint my 
trusty Friend Samuel Forman to be my lawful Executor 
and after all my just Debts are paid, I desire that he do 
divide the rest of my substance whether by Book Debts, 
Bonds, notes or a-ny effects whatever belonging to me 
equally between my two children Elizabeth & Martha 
Huddy. In Witness whereof I iiave hereunto signed my 
name this twelfth day of April, in the year of our LORD 
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two. 

Joshua Huddy." 
This being finished, a placard was placed on his breast 
which read thus: "We, the refugees, having with grief 
long beheld the cruel murders of our brethren, and finding 
nothing but such measures daily carrying into execution ; 
we, therefore, determine not to suffer without taking ven- 
geance for the numerous cruelties, and thus begin, having 
made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to 
your view, and further determine to hang man for man, as 
long as a refugee is left existing. Up goes Huddy for 



16 The Block House at Toms River. 

Philip White." Captain Huddy said as his last words : " I 
shall die innocent and in a good cause." 

Captain Lippincott was profane in his execrations of his 
men as he noticed their reluctant conduct to pull the rope 
on so brave a man. He took hold of the rope himself, and 
very soon poor Huddy was suspended by the neck until he 
was dead. A prisoner of war captured in actual battle had 
been taken from confinement without competent military 
authority, and his execution had been made a frolic — a 
wanton, inhuman murder had been publicly committed 
which would forever disgrace the annals of a civilized 
people even though engaged in war. And thus was ended 
with an appearance of great calmness and firm manliness, 
the earthly career of one of the truest, one of the bravest 
of the soldiery who fought for the independence of America. 
Captain Lippincott reported to the Board of Loyalists that 
he had exchanged Captain Huddy for Philip White. 

" George we owned for our king, as his true royal sons, 

But why will he force us to manage his guns ? 

Who 'list in the army or cruise on the wave. 

Let them do as they will — 'tis their trade to be brave ; 

Guns, mortars and bullets we easily face, 

But when they're in motion it alters the case ; 

To skirmish with Huddles is all our desire — 

For though we can murder, we cannot stand fire." 

This barbarous act exasperated the good people of Mon- 
mouth county and of the State beyond description. The 
body of the murdered soldier hung on the gallows until 
four o'clock in the afternoon, and was then carried to the 
residence of Captain James Green, in Freehold. On April 
15th, the Rev. Dr. John Woodhull, pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church, preached his funeral sermon from the front 



The Block House at Toms River. 17 

porch of the old Freehold hotel, and he was afterward buried 
with all the honors of war, it is generally supposed, in the 
graveyard around old Tennent Church, on Monmouth 
battle ground, in what is now an unknown grave. 

Doctor Woodhull was one of the most zealous of patriots, 
and as soon as he could privately converse with his friend, 
General David Forman, he suggested, it is believed, a plan 
of reprisal in the future against such wantonly cruel con- 
duct of the Tories. A public meeting was held soon after 
in the court house at Freehold, and a petition was prepared 
April 14, 1782, and signed by John Covenhoven, Thomas 
Seabrook, Peter Forman, Richard Cox, Joseph Stillwell, 
Barnes Smock, John Schenck, Samuel Forman, William 
Wilcox, Asher Holmes, Elisha Walton, Stephen Fleming, 
John Smock and Thomas Chadwick, entreating Congress 
and the Commander-in-Chief to take immediate measures 
to retaliate, that such murders might in the future be pre- 
vented. The affidavits of many citizens and .the label 
which was fastened to the breast of poor Huddy were taken 
with the petition by General Forman and (l^olonel Holmes 
to Elizabeth Town, shown to the Commissioners of Prison- 
ers, General Knox and Gouverneur Morris, and then carried 
to General Washington, at Newburgh on the Hudson. 

On April 19th, General Washington called a council of 
war of twenty-five general and field officers at Major-Gen- 
eral William Heath's headquarters, and submitted to them 
all the papers in the case, and requested of them separately, 
in writing, direct and laconic replies to the following 
queries : 

1. — Upon the state of facts in the above case is retali- 
ation justifiable and expedient ? 

2. — If justifiable, ought it to take place immediately, or 



18 The Block House at Toms River. 

should a representation be made to Sir Henry Clinton and 
satisfaction demanded from him? 

3. — In case of representation and demand, who should be 
the person or persons to be required ? 

4. — In case of refusal, and retaliation becoming neces- 
sary, of what description shall the officer be on whom it is 
to take place, and how shall he be designated for the pur- 
pose ? 

The members of the Council, without any conference 
with one another, wrote their answers to these questions 
and sent them sealed to Washington. The entire body 
agreed that retaliation was justifiable and expedient. A 
majority of them thought a demand should be made on 
Sir Henry Clinton for the person of Captain Lippincott, the 
murderer; and that, if this was refused, an officer of the 
same rank as Captain Huddy should be selected by lot from 
among the prisoners of war now in their hands. Twenty- 
two of the Council were willing to make a demand on the 
British Commander, and three of them wanted no delay, 
but thought the horrid crime merited instant satisfaction. 
The next day Gen. Washington transmitted copies of all 
the papers in the case to the Continental Congress. These 
documents were referred to a committee consisting of Elias 
Boudinot, of New Jersey ; John Morin Scott, of New York, 
and Thomas Bee, of South Carolina, who reported thereon 
April 29th, when it was 

"Resolved, That Congress having deliberately considered 
the said letter and the papers attending it, and being deeply 
impressed with the necessity of convincing the enemies of 
these United States, by ihe most decided conduct, that the 
repetition of their unprecedented and inhuman cruelties, 
so contrary to the laws of nations and of war, will no longer 



The Block House at Toms River. 19 

be suffered with impunity, do unanimously approve of the 
firm and judicious conduct of tlie Commander-in-Chief in 
his application to the British General at New York, and do 
hereby assure him of their firmest support in his fixed pur- 
pose of exemplary retaliation." 

General Washington, on the 21st day of April, sent an 
official communication to Sir Henry Clinton, enclosing 
copies of all the papers in the case, including the represen- 
tation of the Monmouth county citizens, and requiring sat- 
isfaction in the person of the guilty actor in this tragedy. 
He used this language in the letter ; " To save the innocent, 
I demand the guilty Captain Lippincott, therefore, or the 
officer who commanded at the execution of Captain Huddy, 
must be given up ; or, if that officer was of inferior rank 
to him, so many of the perpetrators as will, according to 
the tariff of exchange, be of an equivalent. To do this 
will mark the justice of 3'our excellency's character. In 
failure of it, I sliall hold myself justifiable, in the eyes of 
God and man, for the measure to which I shall resort." 

This letter of Washington called forth a reply from Clin- 
ton, April 25th, in which he says: " My personal feelings 
therefore, require no such incitement to urge me to take 
every proper notice of the barbarous outrage against 
humanity, (which you have represented to me,) the moment 
that it came to my knowledge; and, accordingly, when I 
heard of Captain Huddy's death, (which was only four 
days before I received your letter,) I instantly ordered a 
strict enquiry to be made in all its circumstances, and shall 
bring the perpetrators of it to an immediate trial," Sir 
Henry Clinton, the day after writing this letter, by an 
order, forbid, in the future, the removal, by the Board of 
Loyalists, of any prisoner from the prison house to which 



20 The Block House at Toms River. 

he had been consigned. A court-martial of Captain Lip- 
pincott was then ordered. In this trial, certain facts be- 
came very apparent. It was clearly proven that Captain 
Lippincott had acted in this brutal outrage on the distinct 
verbal orders of Governor Franklin and his Board, al- 
though it is said that Franklin tried in vain to get Lippin- 
cott to testify that this was not correct. The British sol- 
diery thought this a base act, on Franklin's part, and their 
indignation at him was not concealed. Captain Lippin- 
cott, therefore, claimed that he was free from all responsi- 
bility in the matter, and that the British Commander must 
look to the Board, which he had himself lately organized, 
if he would punish any one for this act. 

Another fact was also developed at this court-martial. It 
was, that Captain Huddy was a prisoner four days before 
the death of the Philip White, noted on the label on poor 
Huddy's breast as he hung by the seashore, and that this 
placard had been read to Governor Franklin, b}' Captain 
Lippincott, before leaving New York. 

The Board of Loyalists were at last compelled to report 
what they knew of the brutal affair, and this they did with 
a deposition of Aaron White relative to Philip White's 
death. They tried in vain to apologize for their conduct by 
saying : " We thought it high time to convince the rebels 
we would no longer submit to such glaring acts of bar- 
barism, and though we lament the necessity by which we 
have been driven to begin a retaliation of intolerable cruel- 
ties, that we could not have saved the life of Captain Tilton 
by any other means. We therefore pitched upon Joshua 
Huddy for a proper subject for retaliation, because he was 
not only well known to have been a very active and cruel 
persecutor of our friends, but had not been ashamed to 



The Block House at Toms River. 21 

boast of his having been instrumental in hanging Stephen 
Edwards, a worthy loyalist, and the first of our brethren 
who fell a martyr to republican fury in Monmouth count^^ 
The recent instance of cruelty, added to the many daring 
acts of the same nature which have been perpetrated with 
impunity by a set of vindictive rebels, well known by the 
name of the Monmouth Retaliators, associated and headed 
by one General Forman, whose horrid acts of cruelty have 
gained him universally the name of Black David, fired our 
party with an indignation only to be felt by men who for a 
series of years have beheld many of their friends and 
neighbors butchered in cold blood, under the usurped form 
of law, and often without that ceremony, for no other crime 
than that of maintaining their allegiance to the govern- 
ment under which they were born, and which rebels auda- 
ciously call t/eason against the States." The document goes 
on to charge the " rebels " with the capture and death of 
James Pew, Stephen West, Stephen Emmons, Ezekiel Wil- 
liams, John Wood, Thomas Emmons, Jacob Fagan, John 
Farnham, Jonathan Burge, Joseph Wood, Joseph Mullener, 
Richard Bell, John Thompson and Philip White. 

It will be noticed that this statement does not charge 
Huddy with the death of Philip White. It was ascertained 
that the real truth of this case was that White was a New 
York refugee engaged in a maraud in New Jersey, was ar- 
rested, placed in a wagon to be carried to Monmouth jail, 
and, in attempting to escape from custody, was shot by his 
guard. Stephen Edwards had been sent from New York to 
spy out the patriot force in Monmouth county, had been 
found in bed with a female night-cap on, had been arrested 
as a spy, had been tried as such, convicted and hung. Jacob 
Fagan was one of the leaders of the band of robbers, in- 



22 The Block House at Toms River. 

cendiaries and murderers who infested the pine regions of 
New Jersey. For years their sole occupation was to steal, 
to burn, and to murder at night the unprotected household. 
These men were outlaws and cared little for friend or foe, 
for Tory or Patriot. Yet in this document Jacob Fagan 
and other pine-robbers are catalogued as loyalists. The 
career of these men show them to be the most abandoned 
criminals, and when they met their just deserts the Tor}^ 
Board held them up as martyrs to the royal cause. 

How very strange all this severe accusation of the con- 
duct of Monmouth county patriots seems to us as we read 
the calm, distinct and, we cannot help but believe, truthful 
words of Governor William Livingston, the great War 
Governor of New Jersey ; in a letter to General Washing- 
ton, dated May 14, 1782, predicated, no doubt, on a perusal 
in Rivington's Gazette of the severe arraignment of the 
patriots by the Tory Board, he says : " I really do not re- 
collect that the militia of this State, or any other of its citi- 
zens, have ever committed against a prisoner of war any 
act of cruelty, or treated any such prisoner, in any instance, 
contrary to the laws of arms." 

The result of the court-martial of Captain Lippincott was 
that the odium of guilt was thus thrown on Franklin's 
Board, while Franklin himself had hastily sailed for Eng- 
land. This is the finding of the British court-martial : 
"The court having considered the evidence for and against 
the prisoner. Captain Richard Lippincott, together with 
what he had to offer in his defence ; and it appearing that 
(although Joshua Huddy was executed without proper 
authority) what the prisoner did in the matter was not the 
efifect of malice or ill-will, but proceeded from a conviction 
that it was his duty to obey the orders of the Board of 



The Block House at Toms River. 23 

Directors of Associated Loyalists, and his not doubting 
their having full authority to give such order; the court 
are of the opinion that he, the prisoner, Captain Richard 
Lippincott, is not guilty of the murder laid to his charge, 
and do therefore acquit him " Major General James Pat- 
terson was President of the court-martial, and Brigadier 
General Cortlandt Skinner, the last Attorney General of 
New Jersey under the Crown, then in command of the 
New Jersey Volunteers (Loyalists), was a member. 

General Washington was immediately informed of the 
finding of the court. On the 5th day of May, Sir Henry 
Clinton was relieved of command, and Sir Guy Carleton, 
having arrived at New York, took command of the British 
army in America. The regret which Clinton had expressed 
was reiterated by Carleton in most distinct language as to 
him abhorrent of all the rights of war. He said that, not- 
withstanding the acquittal of Lippincott, he reprobated the 
act, and gave assurances of prosecuting a further inquiry. 
He followed this by disbanding the Board of Loyalists as 
the surest way of preventing such inhuman acts in the 
future. He wrote to General Washington that he intended 
to preserve "the name of Englishmen from reproach, and 
to pursue every measure that might tend to prevent these 
criminal excesses in individuals," and he said he "would 
-condemn the many unauthorized acts of violence- which 
had been committed." 

Soon after the acquittal of Captain Lippincott, Captain 
Adam Hyler, of New Brunswick, a great personal friend of 
Captain Huddy, and like him a bold and daring patriot in 
nautical adventures, attempted to carry off Lippincott from 
his very residence in New York. One evening with a party 
thoroughly disguised, he rowed out from the Kills across 



24 The Block House at Toms River. 

the bay in a small boat, landed at the White Hall wharf at 
nine o'clock, but fortunately for Lippincott Captain Hyler 
did not find him at home but "gone to a cock-pit," other- 
wise he would within the hour have been offered as a sweet 
revenge to the manes of poor Huddy. 

The next act of General Washington in this serious 
drama was the ordering. May 3d, of General Moses Hazen, 
at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to designate by lot and forward 
to the army for execution in satisfaction of the murder of 
Hudd}'' " a British captain, who is an unconditional prisoner, 
if such a one is in his possession ; if not, a lieutenant, under 
the same circumstances from among the prisoners at any of 
the posts, either in Pennsylvania or Maryland." In accord- 
ance with this order a number who had been confined at 
York were ordered to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and on May 
27th the following officers drew lots: 

Captain Lawford Mills, 17th Regiment of Foot. 

Captain Tliomas Saumarez, 23d Regiment of Foot, or 
Royal Welsh Fusileers. 

Captain 'James Ingram, 33d Regiment of Foot. 

CaptaiH Samuel Graham, 76th Regiment of Foot. 

Captain David Barclay, 76th Regiment of Foot. 

Captain Alexander Arbuthnot, 80th Regiment of Foot. 

Captain William Hawthorn, 80th Regiment of Foot. 

Captain Bulstrode Whitlocke, 26th Regiment of Foot, 
then attached to the Queen's Rangers. 

Lieutenant George Eld, Coldstream Guards. 

Lieutenant John Perryn, 12th Regiment of Foot. 

Lieutenant and Captain Charles Asgill, 1st Regiment of 
Foot. 

Lieutenant and Captain Hon. George Ludlow, 1st Regi- 
ment of Foot. 

Lieutenant R. Fulke Greville, 1st Regiment of Foot. 



The Block House at Toms River. 25 

In General Graham's memoirs, published in the United 
Service Journal in 1834, this drawing is most minutely de- 
scribed. Thirteen pieces of paper were placed in a hat, the 
word "unfortunate" written on one of these strips, and 
when the selection took place the fatal word was drawn by 
Lieutenant and Captain Charles Asgill, of the First Regi- 
ment of Foot, the only son of a wealthy English baronet, 
Sir Charles Asgill. He was only in his twentieth year, and 
was a witty and a brave officer. " I knew it would be so," 
said Asgill. " I never won so much as a bet of back-gam- 
mon in my life." That night Lieutenant Greville, one of 
the luck}' officers, sat up with Asgill all night, fearing, it is 
said, that he would escape and so leave him to a new allot- 
ment. Captain Asgill was sent to Philadelphia under 
guard, and thence to Chatham, in Morris county, New Jer^ 
sey, where a part of the American Army was posted. 
Major James Gordon, of the 80th Regiment of Foot of the 
British Army, a particular friend of his, was allowed to 
accompany him and they were both placed in confinement 
at Chatham. Captain Asgill was not an unconditional 
prisoner under the terms used by Washington in his order 
to General Hazen. It seems strange that this mistake 
should have occurred, for Asgill was included in the capitu- 
lation of Yorktown, and was a prisoner then awaiting ex- 
change. This fact caused General Washington much dis- 
tress, as his letters to such trusty officers as Major-General 
Lincoln clearly show: "Congress by their resolve have 
unanimously approved of my determination to retaliate ; 
the army have advised it and the country look for it. But 
how far it is justifiable upon an officer under the faith of a 
capitulation, if none other can be had, is the question." 

When Captain Asgill was brought to Chatham, New 



26 The Block House at Toms River. 

Jersey, he was accompanied, as has been said, by Major 
Gordon; and Captain Ludlow, of his own Regiment, his 
fellow in other days at Westminster school, was allowed 
by General Washington to go to New York to see Sir Guy 
Carleton. Colonel Elias Da3^ton, of the Second Regiment, 
New Jersey Continental Line, in whose charge Asgill was 
placed June 11th, received a letter of instructions from 
Washington a week previous, in which he was directed to 
impress Captain Ludlow, before he passed him outside of 
the American lines, with the facts, that " my resolutions 
have been grounded on so mature deliberation, that they 
must remain unalterably fixed. That while duty calls me 
to make this decisive determination, humanity dictates a 
tear for the unfortunate offering, and inclines m3 to say 
thdt I most devoutly wish his life may be spared. This 
happy event may be attained, but it must be effected by 
the British Commander-in chief. He knows the alternative 
which will accomplish it." 

The order of Washington, the selection of Captain Asgill 
to be hung for the murder of Huddy, and his being 
brought from prison, at Lancaster, to the army in New 
Jersey, was communicated to Carleton, to his Government 
and to the people of Great Britain. It excited the most 
wide-spread sympathy abroad as well as in this country. 
The royalists themselves, in New York, were frightened and 
worried at the charge of murder proven on them and the 
train of evils which they had drawn on themselves. 

" Old Huddy we hung on the Navisink shore, 
But, sirs, had we hung up a thousand men more, 
They had all been avenged in the torments we bore 
When Asgill to Jersey you foolishly fetched, 
And each of us feared his neck would be stretched, 
When you were be-rebeled and we were bewretched." 



The Block House at Toms River. 27 

The father of Captain Asgill was a great invalid, and the 
impending fate of his son had to be kept from him lest it 
seriously affect his feeble health. His sister was gravely 
excited, being at times bereft of her reason when she 
thought of the dread calamity which menaced her loved 
brother. The mother, however, Lady Theresa Asgill, im- 
mediately instituted efforts to cause the release of her son. 
She called in person upon her King, and he ordered the 
British General— so we find in the Memoirs of Baron de 
Grimm— "that the author of the crime which dishonored 
the English nation should be given up for punishment." 
The influence, however, of American loyalists resident in 
Great Britain caused this order not to be sent across the 
water, or if sent secretly it was not complied with. Lady 
Asgill also wrote to the Count de Vergennes, Prime Minis- 
ter of Louis XVI, in a letter full of the most pathetic 
language of imploration, and entreated him to communi- 
cate with General Washington. This he did by letter July 
29th, enclosing Lady Asgill's letter to him and using these 
words : " Your Excellency will not read this letter without 
being extremely affected. It had that effect upon the King 
and upon the Queen, to whom I communicated it. The 
goodness of their Majestys' hearts induced them to desire 
that the inquietudes of an unfortunate mother may be 
calmed, and her tenderness reassured. There is one con- 
sideration, sir, which, though it is not decisive, may have 
an influence on your resolution. Captain Asgill is, doubt- 
less, your prisoner, but he is among those whom the arms 
of the King contributed to put into your hands at York- 
town." Various circumstances, before this letter was re- 
ceived, caused General Washington to hesitate and then 
delay the execution of the chosen victim. The States- 



28 The Block House at Toms River. 

General of Holland sent an appeal to the Continental Con- 
gress asking for the prompt pardon of the young officer. 
The interest in his case was very great in Europe during all 
the summer months ; and on the arrival of every vessel 
from America in any foreign port an eager request was 
made for information as to the fate of Asgill. 

Captain Asgill himself wrote to Sir Guy Carleton begging 
his interposition to avert his awful destiny. But nothing 
seemed to be done in the matter, much to the distress of 
Washington, as is clearly seen in his letters to Congress 
and to John Dickinson, President of Delaware. Benjamin 
Franklin, the philosopher, statesman and diplomatist, ex- 
pressed himself on this subject in this language to Richard 
Oswald, July 28th : " It cannot be supposed that General 
Washington has the least desire of taking the life of the 
gentleman. If the English refuse to deliver up or to pun- 
ish this murderer, it is saying that they choose to preserve 
him rather than Captain Asgill." 

The whole case is best stated in the clear language of the 
patriotic Tom Paine in one of his letters to Clinton, signed 
"Common Sense:" "The villain and the victim are here 
separated characters. You hold the one and we hold the 
other. You disown or affect to disown and reprobate the 
conduct of Lippincott; yet you give him sanctuary, and by 
so doing you as effectually become the executioner of Asgill 
as if you put the rope round his neck and dismissed him 
from the world. Whatever your feelings on the extraor- 
dinary occasion may be are best known to yourself. Within 
the grave of your own mind lies buried the fate of Asgill. 
He becomes the corpse of your will or the survivor of your 
justice. Deliver up the one and you save the other; with- 
hold the one and the other dies by your choice. On our 



The Block House at ToxMS River. 29 

part the case is exceedingly plain ; an officer has been 
taken from his confinement and murdered, and the mur- 
derer is within your lines." 

Several letters passed between the British Commander 
and Washington during the month of August. These were 
sent by the American Chief to Congress, and in one of his 
letters of transmittal he confesses that the action of Sir Guy 
Carletou in giving strongest assurances that further inqui- 
sitions shall be made, and his reprobation of the act of 
murder in unequivocal terms "has changed the ground 
I was proceeding upon, and placed the matter upon an 
extremely delicate footing." 

So the summer passed along to poor Asgill, not knowing 
when his fate would be settled and whether a reprieve or 
the hangman's knot was the next sight which would appear 
to him. In the latter part of August and September, he was 
allowed to go about on parole around the village of Chat- 
ham and at Morristown, and he was treated by the Ameri- 
can officers, as the orders read, "with every tender attention 
and politeness (consistent with his present situation) which 
his rank, fortune and connections, together with his unfor- 
tunate state, demand," 

A severe calumny on the conduct of Washington was 
reported at the time in British journals and letters, and 
seems to have had some color from remarks made in very 
bad taste by Asgill himself. It was stated, and it is now 
found in Tory history, that a gallows was erected thirty feet 
high in front of his prison window with the inscription 
thereon, " Erected for the Execution of Captain Asgill." 
This was indignantly denied in after years by General 
Washington, and he asked how a belief in such an act 
could be reconciled with the "continual indulgences and 



30 The Block House at Toms River, 

procrastinations he had experienced." He also added " that 
I could not have given countenance to the insults, which he 
says were offered to his person, especially the grovelling one 
of erecting a gibbet before his prison window, will, I expect, 
readily be believed, when I explicitly declare that I never 
heard of a single attempt to offer an insult, and that I had 
every reason to be convinced that he was treated by the 
officers around him with all the tenderness and every 
civility in their power." 

It was not until October 25th that Count de Vergennes' 
letter of July 29th, before referred to, reached Washington, 
and the letter of Lady Asgill sensibly affected him. The 
same day he sent them to the President of Congress, at 
Philadelphia, and that body promptly, November 7th, 

" Resolved, That the Commander-in-Chief be and he is 
hereby directed to set Captain Asgill at liberty." 

On November 13th, this act of Congress was sent to Cap- 
tain Asgill, with a letter of General Washington, the tone 
of which is so kind and yet so dignified that it certainly 
merited a polite reply, which does not appear ever to have 
been written. 

A week after his release. General Washington pressed 
again, upon the attention of Sir Guy Carletou the fact that 
he had promised " to make further inquisition and to col- 
lect evidence for the prosecution of such other persons as 
may appear to have been criminal in this transaction." 
Very little progress was afterward made in this investiga- 
tion, and the war soon after being over, the further discus- 
sion of the subject dropped. 

On the 21st of November, Washington wrote to the 
Count de Vergennes remarking, among other things, " I 
think I may venture to assure your Excellency that your 



The Block House at Toms River. 31 

generous interposition had no small degree of weight in 
procuring that decision in favor of Captain Asgill, which 
he had no right to expect from the very unsatisfactory 
measures, which had been taken by the British Commauder- 
in Chief, to atone for a crime of the blackest dye, not to be 
justified by the practices of war, and unknown at this day 
amongst civilized nations." 

Captain Asgill returned to England in the ship Swallow, 
landing at Falmouth, December 15th, 1782. In October, 
1783, he went to Paris, with his mother and sister, to thank 
King Louis XVI. and his beautiful, his sympathetic, and, 
in after years, unfortunate Queen, Marie Antoinette, for 
their intercession in his behalf. 

During all the year 1782, the Gazette de France and the 
Mercure de France gave every detail of this affair, for the 
whole country seemed interested in his fate. Portraits of 
him were engraved and everywhere exhibited. Several 
plays were acted, notably one by M. de Sauvigny, called 
" Abdir," in which Asgill was the principal character. 
Captain Asgill, on the death of his father, succeeded to the 
title of baronet, and was also, in later j^ears, a General Officer 
in the British Army. 

A poet of the Revolution, Philip Frenau, whose patriotic 
poetry we have quoted before, whose remains lie not far 
from Captain Buddy's in the old Freehold graveyard, wrote 
a humorous poem entitled "Rivington's Reflections," and 
he put into the mouth of Mr. Rivington, the Tory printer 
of New York city, these words : 

" I'll petition the rebels (if York is forsaken) 
For a place in their Zion, which ne'er shall be shaken ; 
I'm sure they'll be clever ; it seems their whole study ; 
They hung not young Asgill for old Captain Huddy, 
And it must be a truth that admits no denying, 
If they spare us for murder, they'll spare us for lying." 



Hi 



32 The Block House at Toms River. 

And in this way this little village, with its useful mills, 
its store-houses and its salt-works, became a rall3ang post to 
be defended against those who loved kingly rule rather than 
the cause of liberty, against those robbers and murderers 
in the Tory bands which infested the shore land. In these 
very streets, stout hearts and brave souls have battled for 
freedom, and on this very soil the warm life-blood of the 
patriot has been shed in the last battle in New Jersey during 
the war for independence. When the block-house was cap- 
tured by overwhelming numbers, and the town was given to 
the torch, the end was not then. In the train of misery thus 
begun a bloody murder of a brave patriot followed, a gallant 
young oflScer as a victim of retaliation for nearly eight 
months was doomed to death for a crime not his own, and 
his pitiful condition commanded the sympathy of the world. 



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